Authors: David Clarkson
Following the breach in the medical bay,
Esteban was assigned to Jimmy’s side at all times. Sensors were set up
throughout the complex, which had the capability of registering the presence of
any astral being. Despite Emmy’s insistence to the contrary, the colonel still
believed the incursion to have been terrestrial. His belief was that if it
happened again, they would be able to follow the intruder back to the source.
‘Are you going to protect me?’ Jimmy
asked.
‘That is why I’m here,’ replied Esteban.
From what he had so far seen of the young
psychic, the soldier was not entirely sure that his presence was required. Back
at the Opera House, he had seen the boy take down two terrorists and was midway
through apprehending the third when he had intervened.
‘What are you protecting me from?’ asked
Jimmy.
‘That is what we hope to find out.’
‘So you don’t know?’
Esteban placed a hand on the boy’s
shoulder.
‘Whatever it is, we will deal with it.
Remember the train? You and I make a great team.’
‘The train was all you. I did nothing.
Even my vision turned out to be false. I saw those people die and made no
effort to prevent it. You’re the hero, not me.’
‘A hero is not defined by a single event.
I fear that my account is not yet in the black.’
Jimmy looked at the soldier with puzzled
eyes. Despite his ability to see the future there were times when he could not
see what was right in front of him.
‘Never mind,’ Esteban said. ‘Whatever
fortune has in store for us both – we will find out soon enough.’
***
The equipment passed the safety inspection
and Emmy was cleared for another astral journey. The colonel had ordered her
not to leave the confines of the base, but thanks to a little trick learned
from her grandfather, she did not think that he had much chance of stopping
her. She had disabled the manual override on the Astral Projection Unit,
meaning that when on a journey, only she would have the power to end it. Then
as soon as her consciousness separated, she transported herself back to the
place where all of this had started. She returned to the observatory at
Jackson’s Hill.
She could instantly see the effects of
the radiation. The amount of energy was far greater than it should have been
relative to the local wildlife population.
It was easy for her to distinguish
between the material and the ethereal beings due to the concentration of energy
within. The animals appeared dense and solid and they maintained their physical
shape. The others were vague and indistinct, but still different from the
energy encountered in space that had taken Sam Carlton. The disembodied energy
here was tethered. Silver cords ran across the landscape like power lines,
connecting these lost spirits to their inanimate bodies back at the desert base.
‘The radiation shields them from the
harvesters.’
She spun around. Her former partner,
Charlie, was standing right in front of her. At least, a projection of his
consciousness was in front of her. Due to the insubstantial nature of his
being, she had not sensed him reaching out to her.
‘Harvesters?’
‘When we named them, we used Mandarin.
Harvesters is the closest literal translation that I can think of. It is still
rather apt. They come where there is death and take away the soul.’
She thought back to the first time she
had encountered one of these beings. It had been in the early stages of the
trials. Back then she had been in awe, but when one had taken Sam Carlton, she
was filled only with regret.
‘What are you doing here, Charlie?’
‘We are here for the same thing. We
are both looking for answers.’
‘But are we asking the same
questions?’
Charlie moved away from her and began to
glide upwards. She followed closely behind, allowing him to lead her up and
onto the observatory roof. Their former residence was like a small island set
within a sea of green. As they came to rest, they regained their tenuous
physical contact.
‘Does the radiation draw them here?’
she asked, hoping that he would be able to shed more
light on the matter.
‘I don’t think so,’
he replied. ‘
I think they freely choose to come
here. I’ve been studying them for some time now. They don’t seem to be aware of
my presence or even each other
.’
Looking around, she estimated there to be
fifty to sixty energy forms that did not belong. This accounted for just under
half of the patients being held at the base. The rest were either in more
complete hibernation or projecting themselves elsewhere.
She paused for a moment in order to think
over what she was about to say. This was not just a conversation between
colleagues and friends. She was negotiating directly with an agent of a foreign
government.
‘I could really use you back on my
team
,’ she said.
‘You know that cannot happen. I have
no problem with you, but your team can never be trusted. Look around you. An
entire town was destroyed.’
‘That was my grandfather. Besides, how
is your side any different to the Americans?’
‘I am not being forced to comply under
duress. Can you say the same?’
She did not need to answer. They both
knew that she possessed no real control over the project. If she had any
freedom, she would never have returned to the experiments at all. They had
already cost her more than she was ever willing to pay.
‘Our masters cannot keep out of each
other’s way forever,’
she told him
.
‘The Americans are already convinced that spies have breached the base. It is
only a matter of time before they retaliate.’
‘Is that a threat?’
She noticed that he seemed more amused
than concerned. In this state and with this level of communication, she could
sense intent in his thoughts much more clearly than she could read an
expression back in the material world.
‘More of a warning,’
she told him.
‘I have three years head start on you,
remember? My people are more than prepared for any attempted incursion. I would
not advise you or any of your American friends trying to cross into our
borders. To all intents and purposes – that is a threat.’
‘Then this conversation is over,’
she said.
‘Once I have cured these people, I am
going to close down the Americans for good. I expect you to do the same at your
end or I will do it for you.’
With that, she broke away from her former
friend and partner, and returned to the base. After a few moments, Charlie did
the same. He expected it would not be long before she came looking for him
again. In fact, he was counting on it.
***
Constance was in the colonel’s office
attempting to salvage what was left of her career. She knew that given the top
secret nature of the work, if she was taken off the project they would never allow
her to return to a normal academic posting. Instead, she would likely be sent
to some remote scientific outpost. Somewhere completely cut off from
civilisation. Somewhere cold. If it ever came down to a choice between the
poles, she would choose the South.
‘If you give me another chance, there’s
still a great deal I can contribute to this project,’ she said. ‘I can still
work alongside Dr Rayne.’
‘Your relationship with Dr Rayne is not
our greatest concern,’ replied the colonel. ‘Washington has set a new agenda.
One that will take the research down a different route. If you are to be a part
of this work, we need to be sure you won’t lie to us again. You should’ve told
us that you knew Dr Rayne previously.’
‘I didn’t know her. I do a lot of guest
lectures and there’s no way I could’ve known she had attended one. Please, just
give me another chance. I’m willing to do whatever it takes.’
Her apparent lack of professional
integrity piqued the colonel’s interest. He leaned forward, projecting a more
intimate tone to the meeting.
‘You’re willing to do anything, you say?’
‘Yes.’
This time her voice was less assured. She
could tell from his demeanour that she might have played her hand too soon. It
was too late for her to take back the offer, placing her completely at his
mercy.
‘Does this mean you’ve no moral objection
to this technology being used in ways that could be considered as
militaristic?’ he asked.
‘The way I see it, the military have been
running this project all along anyway. Besides, I just provide the information.
What you people do with that knowledge when you have it is none of my
business.’
‘And the patients from Jackson’s Hill?’
‘They’re strangers to me.’
The colonel sat back in his chair. He saw
no reason for the meeting to extend any further. She had already given him all
the information he needed.
‘Okay, Dr Stark, you’ve got your second
chance. I expect nothing short of your best this time. I hope you won’t let us
down again.’
‘Don’t worry, Colonel. Whatever it takes
– you can count on me.’
As she left his office, she wondered if
just maybe, she was letting herself in for more than she could handle.
When the order came through, Emmy was not
in the least surprised. Ever since Jimmy’s testimony about the apparition and
the colonel’s unreasonable assumptions regarding the event, it was only a
matter of time before he decided to act. Curing the residents of Jackson’s Hill
was no longer his chief priority. She wondered if this had been the real plan
all along.
The revised mission outline was simple.
Esteban was to be trained as an astral traveller and once he was deemed ready
(by the colonel, not Emmy), they would launch the attack. It was insanity. They
did not even know who or where to strike. Her biggest fear was that they may
try using Jimmy. Provoking foreign governments was one thing, but messing with
the laws of causality would have much more serious repercussions.
Not for the first or the last time, Emmy
wished she had remained in hiding. She wished she had listened to Lucy. Things had
been so much clearer when it was only the two of them. Back then, everything
really was black and white instead of so many shades of grey. Her thoughts
again returned to the brief time they shared together.
The cracks had begun to show not long after
Jimmy’s brief visit. It was then that Emmy noticed her partner becoming more
withdrawn, less open about her feelings, suspicious even.
‘Do you love me?’ Lucy had asked, one
night after Emmy returned from picking up supplies at the nearest town.
‘Of course,’ Emmy replied. ‘You know I
do. I tell you every day.’
She placed her groceries on the counter,
ready to be packed away into storage cupboards. It had not occurred to her that
there might have been a problem with the relationship.
‘Then why are you thinking about leaving
me?’ asked Lucy, making no effort to assist.
Whilst it was true that she had
contemplated moving on and returning to civilisation, Emmy had not for one
minute considered doing so without Lucy by her side. They had made a promise to
each other and she intended to keep it. The love they shared was what she lived
for.
‘I would never leave you,’ she said
‘Was I not enough for you?’ Lucy then
asked, with a faraway look in her eyes.
‘You are enough. You’re everything to me.
We can make a fresh start and still be together. We can find jobs, get a real
place, we can have a real life.’
‘No – we can’t. If we are to be together,
we have to stay here. Can’t you see that?’
Unfortunately, Emmy could not. She
thought that eventually Lucy would come around to her way of thinking. Sadly
for her, that was not to be the case. Shortly after that conversation, the pair
parted ways and she had neither seen nor heard from her lover since. With the
separation of time, those days together now seemed more like a dream than
anything real. The sense of loss, however, was every bit real and remained with
her, always.
***
Once they got started, Esteban proved to
be a quick learner. Emmy recalled the first time she trained a member of the
military and it had been a nightmare. There was too much macho posturing and
bravado. Everything was turned into a competition. Not so with Esteban. The CIA
operative had the discipline and self restraint of a Zen master. He followed
her every instruction to the letter and did not once try to undermine her
authority. By the end of the week he was ready to undergo the final lesson. She
was going to show him how to use his astral presence as a weapon.
Discovering that an astral being can
interact with electrical energy had been an accident, but was that not normally
the way with science? Newton did not plan for the apple to fall onto his head,
inspiring him to come up with his theory of gravity. Sometimes nothing but a
stroke of good fortune can alter the entire course of human development.
A disused military compound was chosen as
the test site. It was isolated and likely to slip under China’s radar since it
was on American soil and well away from the compound in Australia, should their
potential enemy be monitoring. As was to be expected, Emmy took the lead, with
Esteban following closely behind.
There was previously only one time when
Emmy had made a physical interaction while astral travelling and the fallout
had been great. She was lucky the only damage done was to property and that no
people had been injured by her carelessness. Repeating the process would help
to atone for that mistake in the past. It would turn a severe lapse of
judgement into something positive. Well, depending on how they would wield this
power going forward, it at least had the potential of a positive outcome.
Once she located the strongest power
source, a large electrical generator, she took a step back in order to allow
her student the opportunity to prove himself. She had earlier given him a
mantra to recite in order to focus his consciousness, but he did not need it.
As soon as he entered the power source he could feel the energy crackling all
around him. For the first time since he had left his body, he felt surrounded
by something that was tangible. Something that he could reach out and touch.
With years of military training and self
discipline, he was able to channel the energy inward rather than out. It
combined with his own life-force and made him stronger, made him almost
tangible himself, as if he was once more part of the material world. The
electricity was absorbed into his projected consciousness and as it compressed
more strongly, tiny atomic particles began to coalesce. He was deconstructing
Einstein’s equation, turning energy into mass at the speed of light.
Not since Jackson Fox had developed the
ability to reinvigorate himself from the energy of others had one individual
possessed so much power as that now held by the South American. The
connotations this brought with it terrified Emmy. She became spooked by her
partner’s unexpected prowess and the feelings it elicited within her.
Not wanting to take any unnecessary risks,
she willed herself to intercept him and as their energies touched, all of the
additional electrical energy Esteban had accumulated was forced out of him. An
instant later, they were both returning to full consciousness back in the lab.
‘You did it!’ exclaimed Dr Stark. ‘The
readouts show that you completely shut down the power grid.’
Emmy was keen to confirm the results, but
unlike Constance, she was not in a celebratory mood. Esteban’s actions had
suggested that an astral being could take on mass. This raised far too many
questions. They were questions she was under too much pressure to answer, and one
in particular troubled her.
Charlie’s team had three years head start
- could they have come across a similar phenomenon? Would they have made the
same conclusions as she? For the first time she was aware of just how much more
advanced her rivals may have become and just how dangerous that could make
them.
Esteban was characteristically quiet when
he exited his projection chamber. There was so much that Emmy wanted to
question him about, but she would have to wait until they had privacy. Dr
Stark’s continued presence irked her and she did not trust her assistants
either. They were lab rats in every sense of the word. They did not care about
pushing the boundaries of science, only the next pay check and increased
funding by the military. She had to think very carefully about who she could
take into her confidence. The more she thought about it, the more her
conclusions surprised her.
***
Jimmy no longer felt comfortable by his
mother’s bedside. The apparition, he could handle. It was the thought he may
endanger her life again by blindly following one of his visions that worried
him. He had lost a great deal of his former conviction in the last few days.
The self doubt had set in following the train incident. He could still not
understand why his vision had not come to pass. This had never happened before
and it set a dangerous precedent as well as offering him hope of one day
reclaiming his free will.
Whenever he visited the medical bay, he
always made sure to have a guard with him. He would have preferred Esteban, but
since beginning training with Emmy, the CIA man could not spare the time. The
alternatives were not nearly as friendly as the South American. Jimmy knew that
all of the other soldiers feared him. They despised being in his presence and
the rejection hurt.
Why could he not be normal again?
The colonel summoned him to the office
for the first time since the breach, as they were calling it. He sensed a
heightened tension within the compound and he suspected they were planning
something big, but his gift gave him no clue as to what it was. The rigid and
predictable routine of the base was preventing him from having visions as
frequently as he had previously.
‘You probably already know why I have
called you here,’ the colonel said to him, as Jimmy took a seat opposite.
The boy did not answer. He had quickly
discovered that the colonel was always more easily pleased by his own
assumptions than what people actually told him.
‘Well, you’ll be glad to know that we’re
finally in a position to take action against the individuals who breached our
compound,’ the colonel continued. ‘As of 08:00 tomorrow, we will be launching a
retaliatory mission. Those Chinamen may think they can come in here and spy on
us, but we’re going to shut them down, do you hear? Shut them down for good.’
The colonel punched the air with all of
the bravado the young psychic lacked. Though he was certainly enthusiastic
about the mission, the pathos was purely for his audience’s benefit.
‘And you think I can help you with this?’
asked Jimmy, already knowing the answer, but not because of his psychic gifts.
It was simply that obvious – even for him.
‘Hell, son, you can do more than that.
You can pretty much guarantee us victory. A lot of people are going to be
counting on you tomorrow. The whole of the free world, in fact. Now, do you
think you’re up to the task?’
It was not often Jimmy would come up with
a plan independent of his gift, but this time he could feel an idea beginning
to germinate somewhere in the back of his brain. If he was right, it may even
offer him a way out. The colonel was counting on him to provide psychic
guidance, but what if he could find a way to block any foresight from coming
through? After all, it had been done before when they placed him in the sensory
deprivation cell.
‘You know me, sir,’ he replied, easily
feigning his trademark optimism. ‘I’m always willing to do my bit.’
‘Excellent,’ said the colonel. ‘I know
that with you onboard, there is no way we can lose.’
***
Emmy wanted to spend some time alone in
the lab before the big mission. She had been trying to come up with a
believable excuse to feed Dr Stark in order for her to remain back after the
end of the shift, but as it turned out this was not necessary. Everybody was so
elated by the result of the day’s trial that protocols were relaxed.
When Constance saw that Emmy was still
logged into her workstation as she was preparing to leave, she simply reminded
her to shut everything down before turning in for the night. Then Emmy had the
place to herself.
The operating system was unchanged from
when she had developed it with her grandfather. The encryption codes had been
altered, but they were actually less advanced and therefore less secure than
her original codes. Once she was past the firewall it was not hard for her to
find the backdoor. This had been put in by her grandfather for his own
nefarious plans, but now she had a much more noble use for it. She programmed
Esteban’s chamber so that it was linked directly to hers. Should she for any
reason have to abort her journey, he would have no choice but to do the same.
There would be no way for him to carry on without her.
Once done, she hid her handiwork behind a
wall of impenetrable code and then moved on to checking the logs from the day’s
trial. It did not take long for her to find an anomaly. It confirmed what she
had earlier suspected. At the exact time that Esteban had interfered with the
electricity source, his projected essence had altered drastically. A
significant amount of electrical energy had been transferred directly to his
essence.
Einstein’s equation defining special
relativity shows that energy is directly proportional to mass multiplied by the
speed of light squared. An increase in energy could mean only one thing. A
proportional increase in mass must also have occurred. Not enough to give his
astral being substance, but the implications were clear and extremely
troubling. Given enough added energy, an astral being could acquire a physical
presence. In theory, they could become solid. They could become real. If any
being achieved that power, they would be near invincible.